Center for Women's and Gender Studies

NOTE OUR NEW OFFICE HOURS: Monday-Friday 10:00-4:00

What is Women’s & Gender Studies?

Women’s & Gender Studies examines the contributions, perspectives, experiences, roles, and status of women and men within an historical and multicultural framework. Challenging stereotypes, our students explore the ways gender, socioeconomic class, sexual identity, race, ethnicity and age shape experience.  Students are encouraged to explore female behavior and the realities of women’s lives, and to examine how femininity and masculinity are socially and culturally molded rather than determined by biology alone.

Our Mission

The Center for Women’s & Gender Studies at West Virginia University is dedicated to the mission of creating, evaluating, and disseminating knowledge based on feminist scholarship. We recognize diverse approaches to gender studies and the intersection of gender with other social identities such as class, race, sexual orientation, ability, age, and ethnicity in all that we do. We are committed to expanding access to education about women beyond the classrooms and campuses of West Virginia University and do so connecting the people of our state and region to sources of feminist scholarship worldwide. We accomplish our mission as a program within the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, while pursuing a unique university-wide mission.

(Note: “University” means the Morgantown and regional campuses of West Virginia University.)